A volcano on Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula has erupted for what scientists said is the first time in hundreds of years.

The Krasheninnikov volcano sent ash six kilometres into the sky on Saturday (local time), days after a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake in the same area triggered tsunamis and warnings across the Pacific.

Images released by Russian state media showed dense clouds of ash rising above the volcano in the Kronotsky Reserve.

“The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano toward the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas along its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities,” Kamchatka’s emergencies ministry wrote on Telegram during the eruption.

The volcano is in Russia’s Kronotsky Nature Reserve. Photo: TASS

The eruption was accompanied by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake and prompted a tsunami warning for three areas of Kamchatka. Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services later lifted the warning.

“This is the first historically-confirmed eruption of the Krasheninnikov volcano in 600 years,” Olga Girina, head of the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

However, the US’s Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program lists Krasheninnikov’s last eruption as 475 years ago in 1550.

The reason for the discrepancy was not clear.

Flooding on Russia’s Kuril islands after last week’s quake. Photo: Sakhalin regional administration

The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team said late on Sunday that the volcano’s activity was decreasing but that “moderate explosive activity” could continue.

The eruption followed a huge earthquake struck Russia’s Far East early last Wednesday. The 8.8-magnitude temblor that caused small tsunami waves in Japan and Alaska and prompted warnings for Hawaii, North and Central America and Pacific islands as far south as New Zealand.